Cristina Odone is a journalist, novelist and broadcaster specialising in the relationship between society, families and faith. She is the director of communications for the Legatum institute and is a former editor of the Catholic Herald and deputy editor of the New Statesman. She is married and lives in west London with her husband, two stepsons and a daughter. Her new ebook No God Zone is now available on Kindle.

Once upon a time, children were free to play rough. No longer, thanks to elf 'n' safety

The scouts' intrepid activities would be banned today. They'd breach every rule in the over-stuffed book of no-nos that regulates our existence. Tall trees, rickety stairs, coastal paths: these are off limits today. Each involves a degree of risk, and risk-taking itself has become anathema in today's child-rearing.

The tragedy is that, by protecting children from perceived dangers such as a fall or a fire, elf 'n' safety dents their self-confidence. Today's typical child peers at great heights and deep waters and even dark woods with fearful eyes. Ouch, this could be dangerous. The spirit of adventure celebrated in children's classics from The Famous Five through The Railway Children is dead and buried. Today, no child would ever dare wave in warning at an approaching train.

By removing all potential pit-falls from their path, the authorities send out a clear message to children: no one trusts you. Certainly, the architects of Britain's new alarmist culture suspect children of not having the right instincts in dangerous situations. So they avoid these situations altogether, failing to realise that only practice sharpens instincts, including the one for gauging risks.

I admit, my own instincts are those of a cowardly mother (and step-mother): the boys talk of buying a motorbike and I wince, they're out too late and I worry. As for the girl, she set off on a three-day school field trip (to Surrey, God forbid) the morning that the Cleveland kidnap victims were discovered – and it was all I could do not to voice my fears. But I know for their sake to silence my anxiety: independence, resilience, ingenuity all come from a child testing him- or herself. The government should take a leaf from my book, and take a step back: not even total oppression is free of risk.